Esterase variation among Argentine populations of Trimerotropis pallidipennis (Orthoptera)

Congruence between starch gel and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in detecting allozyme variation in pulmonate land slugs

The predominantly selfing slug species Arion (Carinarion) fasciatus, A. (C.) silvaticus and A. (C.) circumscriptus are native in Europe and have been introduced into North America, where each species consists of a single, homozygous multilocus genotype (strain), as defined by starch gel electrophoresis (SGE) of allozymes. In Europe, the "one strain per species" hypothesis does not hold since polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) of allozymes uncovered 46 strains divided over the three species. However, electrophoretic techniques may differ in their ability to detect allozyme variation. Therefore, several Carinarion populations from both continents were screened by applying the two techniques simultaneously on the same individual slugs and enzyme loci. SGE and PAGE yielded exactly the same results, so that the different degree of variation in North American and European populations cannot be attributed to differences in resolving power between SGE and PAGE. We found four A. (C.) silvaticus strains in North America indicating that in this region the "one strain per species" hypothesis also cannot be maintained. Hence, the discrepancies between previous electrophoretic studies on Carinarion are most likely due to sampling artefacts and possible founder effects.

Food-induced esterase electromorphs in Carinarion spp. and their effects on taxonomic data analysis (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Arionidae)

Nonspecific esterases (EST) are often used to measure genetic variation, yet they may be influenced by environmental factors such as food, climate and age. This may produce misleading similarity indices and genetic diversity estimates (i.e., clone or strain diversities in uniparental organisms). Therefore, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and isoelectric focusing (IEF) were used to investigate environmental effects on the EST variation in natural Carinarion populations, as well as in 45 individuals that were raised individually on carrots to produce offspring by selfing. Food effects on EST profiles in these progenies were examined by raising them on different food items (lettuce, nettle, or paper). Our results indicated that: (i) Arion (Carinarion) fasciatus and A. (C.) silvaticus show species-specific EST profiles, (ii) A. fasciatus-like outcrossers most probably are conspecific with A. fasciatus s.s., (iii) not all EST variation has a Mendelian basis since lettuce and nettle altered EST profiles, and (iv) food effects on EST profiles differed strongly between individuals. Although food-induced EST profiles did not affect taxonomic interpretations, they did inflate genetic diversity estimates and thus provided misleading population-genetic data.